Missing moon tapes

I think its one of those things where everyone assumed someone somewhere was
taking care of it and as a result no one did.

"GregS" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:g5lgt1$mpb$1@usenet01.srv.cis.pitt.edu...
> This subject has been around different groups. They were searchin for
> Apollo 11 moon walk
> tapes which were slow scan data tapes. How do you say, NASA was too cheap
> to buy new tapes so they were written over. Well, I think thas how it
> goes.
>
> greg

In article <1%sfk.7932$nD.588@pd7urf1no>, yrret <[email protected]> wrote:
>I think its one of those things where everyone assumed someone somewhere was
>taking care of it and as a result no one did.

The basic story is that there were tapes recorded on an instrumentation
recorder (one of the goofy Ampex helical scan gadgets that were used for
radar traces a lot), of the SSTV feed. Those tapes were put into archives,
because they effectively weren't useful at the time. They were kind of
made as an afterthought, just for safety purposes.

Then, there was a frame rate converted NTSC video feed.... and it was
rate converted using a huge Tektronix storage tube like a big storage
oscilloscope, and it was pretty damn smeary... and that is the video
that made it to nationwide television. That's the video that everyone
cared about for many years.

It has only been in the last few years that someone thought about the
landing and realized that frame rate conversion has improved a hell of
a lot since 1969, and that if you could actually get the original SSTV
feed that it might be possible to get something far better out of it.
And like most archived things, when folks went looking for the tapes,
they weren't anywhere to be found.

Odds are they are somewhere in the archives in College Park... but there
are literally millions of reels of instrumentation tape from everything
from V-2 flights at White Sands to the Mercury missions, to high altitude
balloon flights and sounding rockets. Just like at the Library of
Congress, people are always finding things they never knew they had and
looking for things they are sure they have somewhere.

Part of the problem is also that when projects are shut down, often
all the records are tossed randomly into boxes by people unrelated to
the project, and shipped off to the archives. Consequently, there are
tapes there that have data, but nobody knows what the data is...
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

>
> Odds are they are somewhere in the archives in College Park... but there
> are literally millions of reels of instrumentation tape from everything
> from V-2 flights at White Sands to the Mercury missions, to high altitude
> balloon flights and sounding rockets. Just like at the Library of
> Congress, people are always finding things they never knew they had and
> looking for things they are sure they have somewhere.
>
> Part of the problem is also that when projects are shut down, often
> all the records are tossed randomly into boxes by people unrelated to
> the project, and shipped off to the archives. Consequently, there are
> tapes there that have data, but nobody knows what the data is...
> --scott
>

Wow in my own home I often tell myself if you don't label it you might as
well be throwing it away cause I'll never find it when its needed.

"Scott Dorsey" wrote...
> Part of the problem is also that when projects are shut down, often
> all the records are tossed randomly into boxes by people unrelated to
> the project, and shipped off to the archives. Consequently, there are
> tapes there that have data, but nobody knows what the data is...

Another problem may finding a working machine to play
them back (if they are ever found, that is.)

In article <1%sfk.7932$nD.588@pd7urf1no>, "yrret" <[email protected]> wrote:
>I think its one of those things where everyone assumed someone somewhere was
>taking care of it and as a result no one did.
>
>"GregS" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:g5lgt1$mpb$1@usenet01.srv.cis.pitt.edu...
>> This subject has been around different groups. They were searchin for
>> Apollo 11 moon walk
>> tapes which were slow scan data tapes. How do you say, NASA was too cheap
>> to buy new tapes so they were written over. Well, I think thas how it
>> goes.

I say this because I just was emailing one of the people looking for the tapes
within the last month. There were big budget cuts after Apollo. The tapes were aparently
degaused and used over around 1980. The Australians had many backup tapes but not these.
I just got done sending in an old pamphlet I had for the NASA history website.
This guy really is good at scanning and making PDF documents.

greg

GregS wrote:
> In article <1%sfk.7932$nD.588@pd7urf1no>, "yrret" <[email protected]> wrote:
>> I think its one of those things where everyone assumed someone somewhere was
>> taking care of it and as a result no one did.
>>
>> "GregS" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:g5lgt1$mpb$1@usenet01.srv.cis.pitt.edu...
>>> This subject has been around different groups. They were searchin for
>>> Apollo 11 moon walk
>>> tapes which were slow scan data tapes. How do you say, NASA was too cheap
>>> to buy new tapes so they were written over. Well, I think thas how it
>>> goes.
>
> I say this because I just was emailing one of the people looking for the tapes
> within the last month. There were big budget cuts after Apollo. The tapes were aparently
> degaused and used over around 1980. The Australians had many backup tapes but not these.
> I just got done sending in an old pamphlet I had for the NASA history website.
> This guy really is good at scanning and making PDF documents.
>
> greg

That's news. I wonder why it hasn't hit the stands.

It's easy to scan to PDF. Many commercial and shareware packages out
there....

jak

In article <vcJfk.2828$t32.1276@bignews3.bellsouth.net>, jakdedert <[email protected]> wrote:
>GregS wrote:
>> In article <1%sfk.7932$nD.588@pd7urf1no>, "yrret" <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> I think its one of those things where everyone assumed someone somewhere was
>
>>> taking care of it and as a result no one did.
>>>
>>> "GregS" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>>> news:g5lgt1$mpb$1@usenet01.srv.cis.pitt.edu...
>>>> This subject has been around different groups. They were searchin for
>>>> Apollo 11 moon walk
>>>> tapes which were slow scan data tapes. How do you say, NASA was too cheap
>>>> to buy new tapes so they were written over. Well, I think thas how it
>>>> goes.
>>
>> I say this because I just was emailing one of the people looking for the
> tapes
>> within the last month. There were big budget cuts after Apollo. The tapes
> were aparently
>> degaused and used over around 1980. The Australians had many backup tapes but
> not these.
>> I just got done sending in an old pamphlet I had for the NASA history
> website.
>> This guy really is good at scanning and making PDF documents.
>>
>> greg
>
>That's news. I wonder why it hasn't hit the stands.
>
>It's easy to scan to PDF. Many commercial and shareware packages out
>there....

I just think its a conclusion without hard evidence.

Tricks are getting document aligned and removing smudges, etc.

greg

GregS wrote:
> In article <vcJfk.2828$t32.1276@bignews3.bellsouth.net>, jakdedert <[email protected]> wrote:
>> GregS wrote:
>>> In article <1%sfk.7932$nD.588@pd7urf1no>, "yrret" <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> I think its one of those things where everyone assumed someone somewhere was
>>>> taking care of it and as a result no one did.
>>>>
>>>> "GregS" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>>>> news:g5lgt1$mpb$1@usenet01.srv.cis.pitt.edu...
>>>>> This subject has been around different groups. They were searchin for
>>>>> Apollo 11 moon walk
>>>>> tapes which were slow scan data tapes. How do you say, NASA was too cheap
>>>>> to buy new tapes so they were written over. Well, I think thas how it
>>>>> goes.
>>> I say this because I just was emailing one of the people looking for the
>> tapes
>>> within the last month. There were big budget cuts after Apollo. The tapes
>> were aparently
>>> degaused and used over around 1980. The Australians had many backup tapes but
>> not these.
>>> I just got done sending in an old pamphlet I had for the NASA history
>> website.
>>> This guy really is good at scanning and making PDF documents.
>>>
>>> greg
>> That's news. I wonder why it hasn't hit the stands.
>>
>> It's easy to scan to PDF. Many commercial and shareware packages out
>> there....
>
> I just think its a conclusion without hard evidence.
>
> Tricks are getting document aligned and removing smudges, etc.
>
> greg

Use a flatbed scanner and/or do some image manipulation before
converting to PDF. [ie; scan and save as image file; clean up the
image, print and scan/convert...or else find a converter which saves the
image file directly as PDF]. No need to get NASA involved. This ain't
rocket science.

I send all my invoices as PDFs using a freeware program called
'Documalis'. It's simple, and somewhat restricted in features, but gets
the job done...and the price is right. It works much better than the
application bundled with my Hp all-in-one. Google it....

jak